TIME CLOCK

THE Federal Reserve Board will soon ease the credit pinch by lowering bank reserve requirements and buying Government bonds in the open market, thus expanding the money supply. But this does not mean the Administration is abandoning its hard money policy; it is a temporary move to meet seasonal requirements of business, e.g., extra cash for bigger inventories for Christmas.

TELEMETER, Paramount Pictures' device for bringing first-run movies and special events to tele viewers, will shortly get its first test (and the first test of any method of telecasting first-run movies). In Palm Springs, Calif., 400 homes will see a feature film the same night it is premiered in movie houses. Viewers will drop coins into their sets to "unscramble" the telecast, which cannot be received on an unmetered set.

WHEN congressional investigators dig into the strategic stockpiling program, they will find plenty of things wrong with the $4 billion defense project. Preliminary checks have turned up inferior materials, loss through mishandling, loose specifications and possible fraud. Part of the blame lies with pork-barreling Congressmen, who insisted on protecting U.S. industries to the detriment of efficient buying abroad. But most of the shortcomings can be laid to bureaucratic bumbling.

DESPITE South Africa's drive to raise the world price of gold above $35 an oz., the U.S. has flatly refused and sees no change in the future. Treasury's W. Randolph Burgess thinks the increase would not rectify unbalanced world trade, the big source of the world's economic ills.

AGRICULTURE Secretary Benson, who wanted to support crops only at low "disaster levels,"has given up any hope of any big change in present farm programs.

The overwhelming vote of the wheat farmers in favor of quotas convinced him that it would be political folly to tamper with high support levels, though he still talks of a two-price plan for wheat (one for sales in the U.S. and one for sales abroad), with part of the domestic support price being paid for by a tax on processors.

RADIO set production has come back so strongly this year, despite the dire predictions of television enthusiasts, that output for the first seven months totaled 7,941,000 v. 10,935,000 in all of 1952. Total for the year may exceed 14 million sets, one of the biggest in radio history. Reasons: the continuing demand for extra sets in the kitchen and bedroom, and car radio output.

THE steel industry, which used to absorb an estimated $65 million a year in freight charges before the multiple basing point system was declared illegal, may start doing so again before the end of the year, with Federal Trade Commission approval. As long as steelmakers absorb freight rates to meet competition"(as some small companies are already doing) FTC has no objection.

PREDICTED John T. Blake, a top rubber chemist: "With the new isocyanate rubbers [made from fatty acids and alcohol-type compounds] and with the new fabrics and reinforcement fibers . . . the lifetime tire is not far away . . . [with] colored rubbers that may be as tough as black compounds are today."

GENERAL Motors and Pullman.

Standard will soon show off new pickaback flatcars, the first especially designed for hauling truck trailers. Biggest improvement: re cessed wells for the trailers, making it easier to load them, and eliminating many overhead clearance problems. Railroad men think that the new cars will enable them to haul trailers for 4-c- a mile less than truckers can pull them over the highways. If they do, the embattled truckers and railroads may be headed for a profitable truce.

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